Golden, CO has a B safety grade (67/100) with a violent crime rate of 124 per 100,000, 65% below the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · mid-size city
Golden (20,193 people) sits in the mid-size municipal band. This page opens with per-100,000 FBI UCR rates, then CO and national benchmarks.
Data updated 2026-09-05
Golden, CO is close to the national middle for violent crime, and earns a B PlainCrime safety grade, where violent crime runs 65% below the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Golden, CO shows violent crime at 123.8 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,387 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 65% below the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade B from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
Small-count caution
Golden reported 25 violent offences in 2024 against a population of 20,193. At this volume one additional or one fewer report moves the per-100,000 rate noticeably, so the figure is better read as a data point than as a precise measurement, and year-to-year swings here are expected.
Comparable rate records
The nearest comparable 2024 records to Golden's 123.8 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are New Castle (123.7), Hudson (124.5), Meeker (126.7), Crested Butte (120.5). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
Position in the state cohort
At 123.8 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, Golden ranks 91 of 134 — above 43 of the 133 other Colorado cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is -39.0% against the cohort median of 202.8. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
2020–2024 direction
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 157.3 per 100,000 in 2020 to 123.8 in 2024 (-21.3%). The highest observed value was 229.3 in 2021 and the lowest 123.8 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Offense mix
Violent offenses are 4.9% of the 507 Part I offenses reported in Golden for 2024, against a median of 11.7% across comparable Colorado cities — a gap of 6.8 points. Offense mix is shaped by which agencies report and how incidents are classified as well as by the underlying offenses, so it describes the reported record rather than a settled difference in conditions.
Property counts dominate Golden's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; cities that fail the completeness test stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
Based on 25 reported violent incidents in a population of 20,193. At this volume, one additional or one fewer report can shift the rate and letter grade noticeably; small-city crime counts are inherently more volatile year to year than large-city counts, so treat this grade as a data point, not a precise ranking.
Mid-size municipal totals above are reported offenses, not safety advice for any single block. Reporting completeness still varies by year and agency.
Across 9.6 Census sq mi, Golden logged 50 property and 2.6 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
Golden's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (73% of 507 offenses; mix index 5,590).
Violent offenses are only 5% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Golden offense mix (2024)
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (9.6 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
| Offense | Count | Rate /100K |
|---|---|---|
| Property Crime | 482 | 2387 |
| Larceny-Theft | 370 | 1832.3 |
| Motor Vehicle Theft | 61 | 302.1 |
| Burglary | 51 | 252.6 |
| Arson | 5 | 24.8 |
| Violent Crime | 25 | 123.8 |
| Aggravated Assault | 21 | 104 |
| Robbery | 3 | 14.9 |
| Rape | 1 | 5 |
| Murder | 0 | 0 |
Lead series · fell across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Secondary series · fell · 2020-2024 · FBI UCR
| Year | Coverage | Population | Violent Rate | Property Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Comparable | 20,981 | 157.3 | 3503.2 |
| 2021 | Comparable | 20,498 | 229.3 | 3590.6 |
| 2022 | Comparable | 19,638 | 219 | 4109.4 |
| 2023 | Comparable | 20,499 | 151.2 | 2717.2 |
| 2024 | Comparable | 20,193 | 123.8 | 2387 |
Golden Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind Golden's 507 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Colorado cities closest to Golden in population. Their populations run from 13,992 to 22,341, against 20,193 here. Or use our side-by-side compare tool to benchmark two cities directly.
Golden sits at 123.8/100K violent (grade B); the Colorado cities below are the nearest matches after size peers are removed.
Golden at 123.8/100K violent and 2,387/100K property - matched below outside Colorado (≥10k pop, latest UCR vintage; not the in-state lists above).
123.8/100K here; nearest out-of-state matches.
2,387/100K here; violent-rate peers above excluded.
In 2024, Golden reported 25 violent crimes and 482 property crimes, for a total of 507 reported offenses.
From 2023 to 2024, Golden's violent crime rate decreased by 18.1%, and the property crime rate decreased by 12.2%.
The most common crime type in Golden is larceny-theft, accounting for 73.0% of all reported crimes (370 incidents in 2024).
Mid-size read: Golden figures are FBI UCR CIUS Table 8 (vintage 2024), population-adjusted per 100,000.
Denominators are the reporting-year population on the municipal row. Incomplete years are dropped from rankings. Confirm at FBI Crime Data Explorer and Census.gov QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (mid-size municipal): figures are informational, not advice. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program is the source. Consult a professional before decisions.
Mid-size rate methodology for how Golden's mid-size city row is sourced and ranked.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 Golden, CO rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.
Bulk download: city crime dataset (CSV/JSON)
Put this to use
Put the Golden, CO FBI UCR record to work: compare peers, open the state atlas, or look up another city.
A citywide UCR rate is a starting point, not a neighbourhood verdict: read the full profile and the year coverage notes before drawing conclusions.
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Golden is scored in the mid-size municipal band (20,193 on the row). See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.